The following article comes from Tony Chen, CEO of Channel Factory. Channel Factory is a sponsor of the 2013 Video Marketing Summit taking place this week, July 25-26 in San Francisco (Don't miss out - Register Here Today!). They work with the channels of 150 Fortune 500 companies, providing insights, metrics, social media engagement, and more. We asked some of our sponsors to provide insights into succeeding in today's online video space before the Summit gets underway. Mr. Chen was kind enough to oblige.

Channel Factory’s Tips to Unlock the Power of YouTube

1) Optimize Your Channel for Your Audience

Having a YouTube channel is crucial today because YouTube is now everywhere (Mobile, Desktop, Tablet, Connected Devices, and more to come). It's becoming just as important as your website or Facebook page. The key to a killer channel is compelling videos. The more relevant and accessible your content is to your audience, the more organic views it will attain.

This is especially important because if you choose to use paid promotion of your YouTube videos or Channel, well optimized and maintained channels will generate more earned media and subscribers.

2) Shorter Content Increases Engagement

Shorter, content, under 3 minutes works best to increase engagement and get higher completion rates. For example, by using the first 15 seconds to highlight what you will cover in the video to capture the viewer’s attention will keep the viewer watching for a longer viewing session. Additionally, by providing calls to action, making playlists, and linking to additional videos in a series you will encourage multiple video viewing at a higher rate.

3) Exclusive Content Captures Audiences

The best types of content are exclusive. Movie trailers and reviews, video game reviews, comedic commercial spots, skits and music videos have historically always done very well in capturing and engaging an audience.

4) Video Reaches Your Target Audience

Once you’ve created a content masterpiece, the next thing to do is get it seen. Content is King but it's not complete without the Queen. Distributing the video both On & Off YouTube is very important in capturing your target audience. The science to a successful campaign is to get as much relevant and engaged viewers as possible from everywhere video content is consumed. This will immediately grow earned media in addition to increasing rankings in both YouTube and Google Search. If you have very little to no owned media (Subscribers, email lists, fans, etc), smart paid media will boost your video campaign.

5) Buy Media Aligned with your Brand Message

The overall goal of your content strategy should be to create loyal audiences that drive organic video views. In order to do so, be sure to not only align your video content message and visuals with your overall branding, but make sure you are advertising on relevant placements that are safe for your brand.

For example, TrueView has some capability to filter the types of videos you will advertise on, but without creating a specific white list of videos you can never be exactly sure where your ad will show up. A bad placement can cause a PR nightmare or generate bad sentiment from followers in Social Media.

At Channel Factory, we specialize in generating video views both on and off YouTube. For more information about how Channel Factory can help you Unlock the Power of YouTube, meet us at the 2013 Video Marketing Summit next week, or visit our website.

About Our Contributing Author - Tony Chen

While studying at Rice University, Tony had the groundbreaking idea to found Channel Factory. He left school to pursue the idea and within two years, Channel Factory has become a recognized industry leader in the digital marketing space, working with the top 5 entertainment studios, 3 of the top 5 auto companies, and the top 2 consumer beverage companies in the world.

Follow @TonyChenCEOPlease Note: Opinions expressed in this article are those of the contributing author and not necessarily that of ReelSEO.com